Above average

Eddie Paynter: sick-bed hero © The Cricketer International Enlarge

1901
Of Englishmen who have played ten Test innings or more, only Herbert Sutcliffe (60.73) averages more than Eddie Paynter (59.23), who was born today. But Paynter, a left-hander, didn't make his Test debut until he was 29, and only played 20 matches in all. Seven of those were against Australia, and in Ashes Tests, Paynter averaged a mighty 84 - a figure no other Englishman approaches. He hammered two double-centuries, 216 against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1938, and 243 v South Africa in Durban the following winter. But Paynter's finest hour came in Brisbane in 1932-33, when he defied tonsillitis and the doctors to make 83 (batting at No. 8) before hitting the Ashes-winning six in the second innings. Paynter was a perennial success for Lancashire, and scored 322 for them against Sussex in 1937. He died in Yorkshire in 1979.

2009
A thriller in Hyderabad. The fifth ODI seemed to have tilted in Australia's favour after they piled up 350 runs batting first, but it was then over to Sachin Tendulkar, who made a masterly 175 off 141 balls, going past 17,000 runs in the format along the way, taking India to the very verge. When he was out in the 48th over, India needed 19 runs off 17 balls with three wickets in hand, but - shades of the Chennai Test of 1999 - they fell four agonising runs short.

1994
A frustrating day for Australia, who went into the last day of the third Test against Pakistan in Lahore poised for a series-levelling victory (Pakistan were only 55 ahead with five second-innings wickets left), only to be denied again by their bête noire - Saleem Malik, Pakistan's captain. Fresh from a match-saving 237 in the second Test, and an alleged attempt to bribe Shane Warne and Tim May, Malik made an imperious 143, putting on 196 for the sixth wicket with Aamer Sohail, to send the Australians into increasing apoplexy. The Wisden Almanack said that "Australia won everywhere but on the scoreboard", but that's where it matters, and their wait for a Test win in Pakistan - 14 Tests, 35 years and counting - went on until 1998-99.

1988
Birth of a man who starred in two World Cups for India before he turned 23. Virat Kohli captained the Under-19 side to the title in Malaysia in 2008, and three years later he stood alongside Tendulkar and Co. in Mumbai, having scored a crucial 35 in the final and a century in the opening game of the real thing. When Kohli made his senior debut, he was better known for his brash manner, but mentored by players like Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid in his Bangalore IPL franchise, he soon turned into a mature and reliable middle-order batsman. In his first three years of ODI cricket, Kohli scored seven hundreds, four of them in chases. He was picked in the Test side in June 2011. By the time Dravid and VVS Laxman had retired in 2012, India had one young batsman fit to replace them in the middle order. Kohli impressed everyone when he scored his maiden hundred in Adelaide, India's only century of the 2011-12 series. His phenomenal one-day form continued with an astonishing 86-ball unbeaten 133 to help India chase down 321 in under 40 overs against Sri Lanka in the CB Series that followed.

1932
Don Bradman smacked 232 for New South Wales in only 200 minutes including 32 fours. It was the perfect response to critics after he made 3 and 10 against the MCC the week before in Perth.

1993
Basit Ali and Brian Lara put the fizz into a blistering Pepsi Champions Trophy final in Sharjah, in which West Indies beat Pakistan by six wickets. Basit smote an unbeaten 129 off 79 balls, including five sixes, with his century coming up in 67 balls, which was then the fifth-fastest of all time. Even the giant metronome Curtly Ambrose (10-2-64-1) could not stem the flow as Pakistan romped to 284 for 4. But Lara made sure the match would not go flat with a regal 153 that led West Indies to victory with almost five overs to spare. He hit 21 fours, equalling Viv Richards' world record for a one-day innings, although Saeed Anwar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar later topped that.

1977
Birth of Shiv Sunder Das, one in an assembly line of Indian opening batsmen in the early 2000s. The diminutive Das, only the second Test player from the state of Orissa, was an immaculate judge of where his off stump was, and had precise foot movement and a still head in both defence and attack. But though he was India's first-choice opener for a while, he disappointed by failing to convert numerous good starts. His two hundreds came against Zimbabwe in Nagpur, and he was a forlorn figure during India's tour of West Indies in 2002. He hit his maiden first-class triple-hundred in 2006-07.

1956
You wait 27 years to make your Test debut and then Malcolm Marshall puts you in hospital with a blow to the head within half an hour. That's the fate that befell left-hand opener Andy Lloyd, who was born today. After top-scoring for England in two of the three one-dayers that preceded the 1984 Test series against West Indies, Lloyd was picked for the first Test on his home ground at Edgbaston, but he'd made only 10 when Marshall pinned him with a short one. He was hospitalised for over a week with blurred vision, and didn't play first-class cricket again that summer. Lloyd never played for England again, despite an enduring consistency for Warwickshire that brought him over 17,000 first-class runs.

1916
The life of an English legspinner rarely runs smoothly, and Len Wilkinson, who was born today, is one of a long list of bowlers who failed to fulfill their early promise. When he took 151 first-class wickets in 1938 - only his second season - a rich talent had apparently emerged. He played three Tests in South Africa that winter with mixed success, but struggled thereafter and didn't play for England again after the Second World War. Wilkinson was also a splendidly inept batsman who was close to taking more first-class wickets (282) than he made runs (321).

1987
The day Graham Gooch got down on one knee to take England to the World Cup final. He swept India to distraction in the semi-final in Bombay, carrying out a preconceived plan against Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri to make a brilliant 115. Allan Lamb's late flourish took England to 254 for 6, and though India kept the asking rate in check, they kept losing wickets. Eddie Hemmings took the big one, trapping Mohammad Azharuddin lbw for 64, and he ended with a one-day best 4 for 52, as England booked a date with Australia in the final with a 35-run victory. It was also the last international appearance of the great Sunil Gavaskar, who was bowled by Phil DeFreitas for 4.

1964
Death of the only animal to receive a Wisden Almanack obituary. Peter the cat was a popular cricket-watcher at Lord's - where he spent 12 of his 14 years - and his ninth life ended on this day. His obituary said that "his sleek, black form could often be seen prowling on the field of play when the crowds were biggest".

Other birthdays
1861 Sir Timothy O'Brien (England)
1891 Herbert McGirr (New Zealand)
1905 George Bissett (South Africa)
1937 David Allan (West Indies)
1939 Ken Walter (South Africa)